Strawberry Refrigerator Jam

berries in jars

 I love summer!  Especially when my strawberry plants start producing.  I like to make refrigerator jam with the berries because it's a quick and effective method of processing them (especially if we don't eat them quick enough).  There's lots of recipes on the internet but the basic idea is sugar with berries and maybe some lemon for tartness.  I made my jam with approximately 4 cups of berries with 1.25 cups of sugar.  I don't really have a good ratio for the berries to sugar, so I go with the taste.  

my berry patch

How to make the jam:

pick berries

clean berries

sugar the berries

mash the berries

stir the berries occasionally

heat the berries to low boil (approximately 15-20 mins)

jar the berries

place the berries in the fridge.

rinsing the berries

a strawberry

 

                                                        

adding sugar

mash the berries

boiling berries

I hope you get the chance to try this!  Enjoy!  

~Katie

Preserving Flowers into a Christmas Ornament

It's flower season!  My daughter just went to Prom a few weeks ago and I wanted to preserve her corsage into a Christmas ornament.  If you want to preserve your own flowers, I have bulbs ready to purchase here.

fresh corsage after prom

I prefer the glass fillable ornaments I can normally find at my local craft store but it's not the right season to find those now.  However, I did find these plastic ornaments on Amazon. 

fillable ornament

I cut apart pieces from the corsage

stuffed the ribbon in first

I put the ribbon in first.  Since my daughter wanted to preserve the corsage, I only took some of the flowers off.  Normally, I would have stuffed all of them in.  I used a wooden dowel to ease the flowers in the bulb. The finished ornament is below.

I wrote the event on the side with a permanent marker

Ornament Video below:

 

Chorizo Casserole

I tried a new recipe tonight.  I was getting tired of just plain old soy chorizo over potatoes with cheese.  I found this recipe from Spicy Southern Kitchen on Pinterest and it looked good.  I didn't have all of the ingredients so I modified it.  Be sure to check out her original recipe.  I think I could eat this for breakfast too.

Here's what I used (all from Trader Joe's except the salsa):  

Shredded Hash Browns

chopped onion

butter

olive oil

1 cup non-fat greek yogurt

1 egg

1/2 cup of Pace Picante Sauce

Soy Chorizo

cheddar cheese

Here's how I assembled it (preheated oven 350):

heated oil and butter in a non-stick pan

browned up the hash browns with onion

put that in a 9x13 casserole pan line with parchment paper ( I hate cleaning)

mixed the egg, picante sauce, and yogurt 

poured that over the potatoes

crumbled the chorizo over the yogurt and potatoes

topped with cheese

baked 30 minutes covered and then uncovered for 10 minutes

It was so good!!!

~Katie

Things I made yesterday

 Just a quick post to share what I made yesterday.  

blue and rose pigment filled pendant

white painted fern and green leaf pendant

oregano flower and green leaf pendant

tiny baby's breath squares for earrings

All of these lovely frames can be found at Nunn Design.  What projects have you been up to lately?

~Katie

Chocolate Chip Muffin Tops

I made some chocolate chip muffin tops this weekend for breakfast from a recipe I pinned from Pinterest.  The recipe uses cake mix as the primary ingredient.  The recipe is here.  It was really good, like cake for breakfast.  I did make some modifications.  I used Aldi's Classic White Cake Mix which is only a little over 15 ounces, short of the needed 18 ounces of cake mix.  So I added about 5 tablespoons of flour, the original recipe called for 2 tablespoons of flour.  I also used almond milk instead of cow's milk.  I don't like cow's milk, it tastes funny to me. I also subbed melted butter for the oil and used about 3/4 cup of chocolate chips.  

Aldi's white cake mix

all mixed up

I like making my muffins like cookies, no muffin pan.  That way they are like muffin tops.  The best!  

the not-so-beautiful muffin tops

rotated the pans mid-bake

all done-yum!

perfectly baked muffin tops

Have you ever made your muffins like cookies?  

~Katie

Soldering a Fern Leaf - Part One

This week I'm working on some soldering.  Specifically making new pendants and wall art.  This first part focuses on the steps prior to applying solder.  Next time, I'll cover the steps for applying solder.  I really enjoy soldering but these first few steps are somewhat tedious to me.  

The first step is picking out what I'll frame.  That's the easy part.  :)

fern from my garden and glass

Next comes cutting copper foil to go around my glass.  A little more effort.  But still fairly easy.

cutting foil to go around the glass

The third step (most tedious to me) is sandwiching the fern between the glass, whilst also making sure there aren't any dust particles, finger prints, or that the fern has shifted.  Definitely, a bit of a pain.  I feel like I always see dust and am constantly cleaning it out.  But when I feel it's finally dust-free, smudge-free, and hasn't shifted, I use binder clips to keep it all together.

binder clips hold the glass and fern together

Lastly, I wrap copper foil around the glass.  Still tedious but not as tedious as the previous step.  The hardest part of foiling is making sure that I'm square in the middle of the tape with my glass. For this piece, I cut the foil a little bit short and covered up what was missing.  I'll use an hobby knife to even up the tape on all sides.

the glass is foiled and ready to be cleaned up
 on the edges with a hobby knife

Next time, I'll show the steps for soldering.  Happy Tuesday!

~Katie

 

Doodling again...

I really like to draw.  Especially flowery things.  I'm not the best drawer but I find it to be a very calming exercise.  A mindful exercise.  I draw when I'm restless, stressed, or bored.  It helps keep me grounded.  

What do you do for mindfulness?

~Katie

fern

yellow flowers with butterfly

abstract leaves

You can find my dishes here:  kateemarie

Polymer Clay Earrings

I've been playing with clay again.  A long time ago, when I first discovered poly clay, I made tons of beads.  Mostly in a swirled pattern.  Boring.  Meh.

One of my first beads. I suppose it's kinda cute.

But recently, I've found so many beautiful patterned clay slabs on Pinterest that I've been inspired to try my hand at slab work. 

First attempt at patterned clay cut outs.

Since I didn't have a very fun mix of colors for my first batch, I picked up more clay.  Stay tuned. 

~Katie

Purple bead and polymer clay earrings.